The ‘Hijab Controversy’ is currently raging in Karnataka and some other parts of the country. The controversy has nothing to do with whether hijab/burqa is mandated by Islam or not; or for that matter, whether it is legitimatized by any Article in the Constitution. All that is by the way! The plain truth is that it is all about ‘Hindutva’ politics. 

The one question which every thinking citizen of the country needs to ask oneself is: Why has this so-called ‘controversy’ on the wearing of hijab suddenly emerged and is today a major issue in India as though nothing else matters? One would certainly be an absolute moron, not to realise that the ‘hijab controversy’ is all about the ongoing elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states. It is a manufactured one, completely engineered by the BJP, the Sangh Parivar and their ilk. 

Even though the protests and violence take place in a far-away southern state, social media today generates sufficient traction to polarize the electorate and thereby to influence the entire electoral process. Besides, the controversy is also part of a well-thought-out agenda of the bhakts who subscribe to the Hindutva ideology, that is to demonize and denigrate the minorities of India particularly the Muslims and the Christians.  

A fresh issue is raked up each time -- be it the Pulwama surgical strikes or attacks by so-called ‘terrorists’, ‘love jihad’ or ‘conversions’, beef-eating or hijab. These conveniently and strategically hog the headlines. On the other hand, critical and urgent issues that plague the nation like growing impoverishment, rising prices, rampant unemployment, destruction of the environment, denial of Constitutional rights and freedoms are tactfully put on the back-burner.

The average citizen easily falls into such traps. The people start getting polarized into divergent camps. Divisiveness is the order of the day. Hate speeches, derogatory remarks, unsubstantiated statements rule the roost. As in most cases, the law-and-order mechanism fail to take cognizance of what is happening, they become bystanders, mere spectators, complicit in the crime. In several other instances, there is evidence to show that not wanting to disobey their political masters, they even get involved in the crime. ‘Godified’ media has a field day, highlighting non-essentials and dimensions which are peripheral and have nothing to do with the ground reality.

Two key questions have come into focus in the context of this current controversy: Does Islam mandate the wearing of a hijab/burqa for a woman of that faith? Does the Constitution of India legitimize the wearing of a hijab? The responses to both these questions are nuanced. One needs to admit that there are shades of grey! Several interpretations (and misinterpretations!) are doing the rounds. In the final analysis, what must triumph is the big picture: the rights and dignity of all, the choices that each one voluntarily makes, the fostering of pluralism and diversity and above all the courage to accept differences.

Does Islam mandate women from donning the hijab? Several Islamic scholars say ‘no’. Dr. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, a scholar of Islam, in an op-ed (Times of India, 10 February 2022) argues that the Quran does not stipulate this form of a dress. Her article ‘Is Wearing Hijab mandated by Religion?’ shows that veiling originated much before the advent of Islam. She asserts, “Prophet Mouhammad recommended modesty and decency in appearance and dress. But to suppose that his recommendations enjoined a cloistered uniform for women in the present, is wholly opposed to the spirit of his reforms.”

All major religions do have some prescriptions/recommendations about how one should dress. Some of these are found in the scriptural texts. Today, however, given the changing times many of these recommendations are governed by the spirit rather than the letter. Dress codes are often cultural practices which emanate from social mores, customs and traditions. In India we have a plethora of them. 

In most parts of India women cover their heads – and particularly when they visit a place of worship. This is so evident in Christianity, when there was a time that no woman went to Church without covering her head – either with the dupatta of her sari or at least with a veil. It will perhaps be unthinkable and unacceptable for most Christians to ‘see’ Mary the mother of Jesus without the traditional hijab. For that matter, most women Saints in the Catholic Church and also many religious congregations of women, have prescribed ‘habit’ which necessitates the head being covered. 

On the other hand, there are many whose opinion is, insisting that women cover their heads, is symptomatic of a regressive patriarchal society which continues to subjugate women. In many societies, it is argued that men can easily opt for a dress of their choice. This choice is denied to women. The fact is that there are several Muslim women who refuse to wear a hijab today just as there are many Hindu, Sikh and Jain women who refuse to wear the ‘ghungat’. Several religions also mandate that men observe modesty of eyes and treat all women with respect and dignity. In many cultures and religions even in India, men don a headgear, like Sikh men who wear a turban.

The hijab controversy of Karnataka is making international headlines. Nobel laureate and women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai expressed concern about the recent incidents regarding Muslim girl students and has urged Indian leaders to “stop the marginalisation” of Muslim women. She tweeted, “Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying …Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women.” All major international print and electronic media have also covered it, putting the Indian state in very poor light.

Then comes the question of ‘Constitutionalism.’ Some of India’s top legal luminaires have openly come out in support of the girls’ right to wear hijab, if they choose to do so. The current controversy seems to have its inception when six girls in a pre-university college in Karnataka were prevented from entering their classrooms unless they took off their headscarves. It soon spread to other academic institutions. In a matter of time boys from these institutions were provided with saffron scarves from vehicles laden with them which were parked outside their colleges. Video clippings clearly show the boys being very abusive, spewing derogatory remarks on the Muslim girls and even indulging in violence. 

The BJP’s push towards the realisation of their ‘Hindu Rashtra’ is obvious enough: when girls wear the hijab, education is no longer a fundamental right but an affront to the so-called domain of the deity Saraswati. No colour can actually be appropriated by any religion or ideology! The   Saffron colour is on the Indian tricolour. Unfortunately, the Hindutva brigade have made their ‘saffron scarves’ symbols of their ideology. Their doing so however, can never be equated with the hijab and its customary use by adherents of a faith. These recent acts are certainly violative of several provisions of the Constitution. Significantly, even on 11 February the Karnataka High Court did not decide upon the petitions that were filed, adjourning further hearing to 14 February. Until such time they want the students to return to classes and “pending consideration of all these petitions, we restrain all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls (Bhagwa), and connected matters, scarfs, hijab, religious flags or the like within the classroom, until further orders.”

The Karnataka unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in a strongly worded media statement condemned the Karnataka Government for abdicating its Constitutional responsibility to protect the right to education of Muslim girls. It said:   

“Even in this case, the same constitutional rights stand violated. The specific action of the PU College management stopping the girl students from entering the classrooms and college violates the right of Muslim girls to access learning without discrimination. Article 15(1) prohibits non-discrimination on the grounds of religion and sex. Article 29(2) specifically prohibits discrimination in state aided educational institutions on grounds of religion. The preventing of women in hijab from accessing education is at heart a discrimination based on religion. As interpreted by the Supreme Court, Article 21 guarantees the right to live with dignity. The prohibition on the use of hijab violates the right to dignity of the Muslim women students as the dress is an intrinsic part of the expression of their identity as Muslim women. Article 21-A guarantees the right to education, and this prohibition of Muslim women from attending classes violates the right to education. Most importantly, Article 25 gives the freedom to practice, propagate and profess religion, and it is pertinent to note that the hijab is an essential aspect of the Islamic faith. The prohibition of wearing the hijab hits the constitutional guarantee under Article 25.”

On 10 February, more than 2,000 intellectuals (including lawyers, journalists, academicians, and woman-rights and human rights activists) through an open letter said: “The ban on hijab in classrooms and campuses in coastal Karnataka, which is now spreading to other states, is a hate crime…the restrictions on wearing hijab in classrooms and campuses are only the latest pretext to impose ‘apartheid’ on Muslim women”. The signatories in the open letter, endorsed by over 130 groups across 15 states, have stated that the Indian Constitution mandates schools and colleges to nurture plurality. “Uniform in such institutions is meant to minimize the differences between students. They are not intended to impose cultural uniformity on a plural country…Educational institutions should pay attention to what is inside students' heads and not what’s on them”. 

The group’s statement went on to say: “Making hijabi women sit in separate classrooms or move from colleges of their choice to Muslim-run colleges is nothing but apartheid. Hindu supremacist groups in coastal Karnataka have, since 2008, been unleashing violence to enforce such apartheid, attacking togetherness between Hindu and Muslim classmates, friends, lovers. It must be remembered that such violence has been accompanied by equally violent attacks on Hindu women who visit pubs, wear “western” clothes, or love/marry Muslim men. Islamophobic hate crimes have been joined at the hip to patriarchal hate crimes against Muslim and Hindu women by the same Hindu-supremacist perpetrators. 

We are appalled that the Karnataka Home Minister has ordered an investigation into the phone records of hijab-wearing Muslim women, to ‘probe their links’ with ‘terrorism groups’. Till yesterday Muslims were being criminalised and accused of ‘terrorism’ and ‘conspiracy’ for protesting against a discriminatory citizenship law, or indeed for protesting against any form of discrimination. Now Muslim women wearing hijab are being treated as a conspiracy -- in a country where women of many Hindu and Sikh communities cover their heads in much the same way, for much the same reasons; and even India’s first woman Prime Minister and (the first woman) President covered their heads with their saris without exciting comment or controversy”. 

Significantly, the visible face of this current agitation and perhaps of the resistance to the fascist brigade is Muskaan Khan. Muskaan is a 19-year-old undergraduate student in a College in Mandya. A few days ago, after parking her two-wheeler, when she was entering her college, she was accosted and heckled by a mob of men, inside the college campus. The mob, wearing saffron scarves, were apparently not all students, but yelled at Muskaan “Jai Shri Ram”. She was wearing a burqa and facemask; she stood her ground and with a clenched fist shouted back, "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). The video of Muskaan being heckled and abused and her feisty response has gone viral. Her singular act of courage has been hailed nationally and internationally. One group has already announced a cash reward for her. 

Speaking to a news channel Muskaan says, “when I entered the college, they were not allowing me just because I was wearing the burqa... They blocked my path and said that I could not enter the college premises. They started shouting Jai Shri Ram. So, I started screaming “Allahu Akbar”. The principal and lecturers supported me and protected me.”

Muskaan (meaning ‘smile’) reminds one of another ‘Muskaan’ in the 2010 film Well Done Abba (‘Well done, Dad’). It is a political satire film in Hindi directed by the maestro Shyam Benegal.The film is all about systemic corruption particularly among the politicians and bureaucrats, about the discrimination that women have to face in society, and above all how the poor and vulnerable sections of society are denied their rights. Ultimately, through sheer grit and determination, it is the teenager Muskaan who wins the day – for herself and for all. She takes on the unjust system with vested and powerful interests who revel in being insensitive to others. It is not easy but, in the end, she triumphs. The film can so easily be applied to the Muskaan of Mandya and the hijab issue of today.

India desperately needs more ‘Muskaans’ – the one of real life and also the one from ‘reel’ life to take on the fascists of today. Will more of them rise – to put back the smile on the nation?

Above all, we need to be wary of how religion and religious symbolism can be used to manipulate people in their lust for power.

(The writer is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com )